The RMS
Lusitania was a
pioneering ship and was the first transatlantic liner fitted with steam
turbines. She soon became a Greyhound of the North
Atlantic and holder of the coveted Blue Riband. Sadly her
career
ended in tragedy when she was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in 1915 off
the Old
Head of Kinsale on the Irish coast while on a transatlantic crossing
from New York to Liverpool.
This resulted in the loss of 1,195 lives including those of 123
American
citizens. It was rumoured that she was carrying munitions on board and
also that the Admiralty had failed to protect her sufficiently by
giving vague orders and not protecting her with a destroyer escort as
she entered the war zone. However she sank in less than 20 minutes
after being hit by one torpedo. Her sinking is one of the great
tragedies and turning points
of the
First World War and remains controversial even today.

Design
and Construction (1905 – 1907):

In the
early part of the
twentieth century, the only way to traverse the Atlantic
was by ocean liner. It was a time of fierce competition between rival
shipping lines–with
passengers expecting not only a speedy crossing, but luxurious
accommodations
as well. In 1897 the Nordeutscher Lloyd ship Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse
took the
Blue Riband from Cunard's Campania
and Lucania.

Thereafter
German ships held
the trophy without challenge. It was not until 1902 that negotiations
began
between the Government and Cunard with a view to building two
superliners, the Lusitania and
Mauretania, capable of winning back and
holding the Blue Riband for Britain.
By 1903 an agreement had been reached whereby the government would lend
£2,600,000 to Cunard to build two ships capable of 24 to 25 knots. In
addition
they agreed to make an annual payment to Cunard on the condition that
the two
ships were capable of being armed and that the Government would have a
claim on
their services in times of national emergency.

In 1903
the Cunard Line led
by Lord Inverclyde began construction on two fast and luxurious liners
to
challenge the German vessels that had held the ‘Blue Riband’ since
1897. The
resulting sisterships RMS Lusitania and RMS Mauretania would be a firm
reassertion of British supremacy at sea.

In an
effort to ensure the
speed requirements were met, Lord Inverclyde, then chairman of Cunard,
chaired
a committee of experienced engineers to discuss the subject in
September 1903.
In March 1904 the committee decided to utilize turbines, as opposed to
reciprocating engines. Another problem was the hull design and size of
the two
new ships. After a series of private experiments and tests by
Dr.R.Froude in
the Admiralty tank at Haslar near Portsmouth
this problem was resolved. It was decided that the two new ships would
be 785
feet long and have gross tonnage of 32,000.

The
contract for the
building of the Lusitania went to
John Brown
& Co. Ltd, Clydebank, Glasgow, Scotland, UK and the keel was laid in
May
1905. The ship was launched on the 7th June 1906 by Lady
Inverclyde.
The Lusitania
was the largest vessel afloat at the time and had seven decks for the
use of
passengers, who enjoyed the palatial accommodation. Third class
passengers were
no longer accommodated in 'open berths' but in four- or six-berth
cabins. The
machinery also marked the Lusitania
as a pioneer in maritime history. The ship's quadruple-screw propulsion
unit
was driven by direct-drive steam turbines which developed some 68,000
IHP and,
revolving at 180 rpm, were capable of driving the Lusitania at 25 knots. The fact that
the
ship's coal bunkers ran along the sides of the boiler rooms was also
unconventional. This afforded some protection to these vital machinery
spaces,
as they were below the waterline and vulnerable to damage caused by
collisions
or enemy action. It was the latter, perhaps, that was foremost in the
minds of
the planners for in times of war the Lusitania
was intended to be converted into an armed merchant cruiser. To this
end it was
designed to carry 12 quick-firing 6 inch guns.

Service
Years (1907 – 1914):

After
trials in the Clyde
the Lusitania left Liverpool on the 7th
September 1907 on its maiden voyage to Queenstown and New York. It
was estimated that over 200,000
people gathered to witness the ship's departure. Despite obvious
attempts to
regain the Blue Riband from the German ship, Deutschland, the Lusitania did
not manage this until its
second outward voyage on the 5th October 1907. It made the
Queenstown to Sandy Hook crossing in
4 days 19
hours and 52 minutes. In November 1907 the Lusitania’s
sister ship, the Mauretania, came
into service
and it was not long before the slightly better performance of the
latter ship began
to show.

In June
1908 the Lusitania's outer propellers
were replaced with improved
versions and in November Captain William Turner was appointed to
command the Lusitania.
He was a Liverpool man who first went
to sea when he was just 13
on board the sailing ship White Star. He joined Cunard in 1878 and was
holder
of the Humane Society's silver medal for saving life at sea. During his
career
he served on the Cherbourg,
Umbria, Carpathia,
Ivernia and
Caronia. Soon, in February 1909, the Lusitania
was fitted with new four-bladed propellers. After a bad period, during
which
the ship had problems such as damaged propeller blades and damaged
turbines,
the Lusitania broke its last speed
record in
March 1914 on a voyage from New York
to Liverpool.

First
World War and Her Final Voyage (1914 – 1915):

The
outbreak of the First
World War meant that the role of the ship was about to change. Upon
arrival in
the River Mersey the Admiralty decided that they did not need the ship
as an
armed merchant cruiser but they paid for the ship to remain at Liverpool at their disposal. The Lusitania
made two trips between Liverpool and New York during October 1914 and
then began a monthly
service on this route. In order to save on coal and labour six of the
ship's
boilers were closed down and its maximum speed reduced to 21 knots.

On a
voyage leaving
Liverpool on the 16th January 1915 the Lusitania
was involved in an international incident which gave the ship's
presence in the North Atlantic a very
high
profile. The ship
was travelling through rough seas on the way to Queenstown and, fearing
the
possibility of a torpedo attack, the Captain hoisted the 'stars and
stripes'.
With America still
neutral Germany
was
reluctant to bring her into the war on the side of the Allies, so it
was
considered that this would guarantee a safe passage. The use of the United States
flag, however, came to the notice of the press and the incident made
world
news. Soon, in April 1915, the Imperial German Embassy in Washington
sent warnings to the newspapers in New York to the effect that the
passengers travelling on
Allied ships did so at their own risk.

For its 17th
April
voyage from Liverpool the Lusitania
was commanded by Captain William Turner, who relieved Captain Dow when
he went
on leave. It made its final sailing from Pier 54 in New York on the
1st May 1915,
with some 1,959 passengers on board, amongst whom were the usual
sprinkling of
famous and wealthy. A number of Americans were aboard, including the
wealthy
Alfred Vanderbilt and noted theatre producer Charles Frohman. The cargo
was
entered on the manifest as foodstuffs, metal rods, ingots and boxes of
cartridges. Controversy about the true nature of the cargo and the
cause of the fatal second explosion would
persist for
many years.

By the 7th
May
the ship had entered what was called the danger zone, waters in which
enemy
submarines might be expected. Captain Turner took all possible
precautions
ordering all the lifeboats to be swung out, all the bulkhead doors to
be
closed, look-outs to be doubled and steam pressure to be kept high to
give the
ship all possible speed in case of emergency. At 8.00am speed was
reduced to 18
knots to secure the ship's arrival at the bar outside Liverpool
at 4.00am the following day, in order to catch the high tide. At
12.40pm the
ships course was altered in order to make a better landfall. The ship
was
brought closer to land and the Old Head of Kinsale was sighted at
1.40pm.
Having steadied the ship on this course an officer began to make a
four-point
bearing at 1.50pm, but this was never completed.

At 2.00pm
the passengers
were finishing their lunch, and at 2.15pm the ship was 10 to 15 miles
off the
Old Head of Kinsale with the weather clear and the sea smooth. Captain
Turner
then heard the second officer shout 'There is a torpedo coming, Sir'.
Immediately afterwards there was a terrific explosion on the starboard
side,
between the third and fourth funnels. Almost simultaneously there was a
second
explosion, which was thought at the time to be a second torpedo but has
since
been confirmed as an internal explosion, although the cause has never
been
definitely established. The ship had been attacked by the German U-boat
(U-20) the stricken Lusitania
immediately took on a heavy list to starboard and in about 20 minutes
it had
sunk, with the loss of 1,198 lives. The ship sank bow first, with its
stern
almost perpendicular out of the water, just as the Titanic had done
some 3
years earlier.

Captain
Turner survived and
he remained on the bridge giving orders until the ship foundered. His
order
'women and children first' was largely obeyed. There were complaints
from some
of the survivors about the manner in which the lifeboats were launched,
their
condition and the lack of leadership from the ship's officers. But
considering
that within seconds of being hit all the lights went out and the ship
listed
heavily to starboard and that it remained under way the whole time,
together
with the fact that it sank in 18 minutes, it is a miracle that so many
did get
away safely.

As always
with such
tragedies there were many stories of heroism, but two were officially
recognised and Able Seamen Leslie Morton and Joseph Parry were awarded
the
silver and bronze medals for Gallantry in Saving Life at Sea. The
citation to
the awards read as follows:

“On
7th May 1915, the steamship Lusitania,
of Liverpool, was torpedoed off the
Old Head
of Kinsale and foundered. Morton was the first to observe the approach
of the torpedoes
and he reported them to the bridge. When the torpedoes struck the ship
he was
knocked off his feet, but he recovered himself quickly, and at once
assisted in
filling and lowering several boats. Having done all he could on board,
he
jumped overboard. While in the water he managed to get hold of a
floating
collapsible lifeboat and, with the assistance of Parry, he ripped the
canvas
cover off it and succeeded in drawing into it 50 or 60 passengers.
Morton and
Parry then rowed the boat some miles to a fishing smack. Having put the
rescued
passengers on board the smack they returned to the scene of the wreck
and
succeeded in rescuing 20 to 30 more people”'.

She had
sunk in 18 short
minutes taking 1,195 lives - 123 of them American. The sinking of the Lusitania was
one of the
great tragedies and turning points of the First World War. Although
America did
not immediately declare war on Germany, that would occur in April 1917,
her
sinking contributed to the mood that turned the tide of American public
opinion
against Germany and led the United States to join the Allied cause in
World War
I. As a result the political repercussions were enormous and it ensured
that no
American administration would ever be allied to Germany.

At the
time the Germans claimed that the ship had sunk so quickly due to
munitions being carried as cargo on board exploding. Ever since
controversy has raged over the Lusitania's cargo on the fateful voyage
and the mystery of the second explosion continues to this day. While
some have thought it was caused by a coal dust explosion. In 1960 an
American, John Light, led a series of dives on the wreck. He claimed to
have found a gaping hole in her side and claimed that the Lusitania's
contraband cargo had exploded. He conducted over 80 dives but, due to
the limited technology at the time, could only stay for a few minutes
during each dive. As a result he could only glimpse fragments of the
enormous hull. In the 1990s, the famed explorer, Robert Ballard, who
had found the wreck of the Titanic, used a submarine to explore the
wreck of the Lusitania. By the 1990s the funnels of the Lusitania had
completely rusted away and the hull had collapsed to half its original
size. However he discovered that the most likely theory for the second
explosion was coal dust exploding. The ship was nearing the end of her
voyage and so all that was left in the storage bunkers was coal dust.
The powder may have been thown in the air by the force of the torpedo
impact, and as it settled reached a critical explosion point,
triggering the second explosion that proved fatal for the Lusitania.

Today the
wreck of the Lusitania lies on the
seabed of the Irish Sea where she
sank entangled in fishing nets with the only tangible sign of it being
the Lusitania
being the
remains of her mighty bows. In 1982 one of the Lusitania’s
propellers was salvaged from her wreck and now is displayed on the
quayside
outside the MerseysideMaritimeMuseum
in Liverpool. Today it stands as a
memorial to
all those who lost their lives in the Lusitania Disaster and as a
monument to
the mighty ship herself. Every year a “Lusitania Memorial Service” is
held in
Liverpool on the quayside by where her propeller is displayed to ensure
that
the Lusitania
and those lost when she was sunk are never forgotten. The MerseysideMaritimeMuseum
itself has a “Floating Palaces” exhibition telling the story of the
Edwardian
transatlantic liners including telling the story of the Titanic and Lusitania with
many
artefacts from these two famous ships. There are also exhibitions and
memorials
to the Lusitania at Cobh and Kinsale
in Ireland.